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The Doubtful Guest

Written and directed by Shôn Dale-Jones
Inspired by the book by Edward Gorey

Nominated for a Total Theatre Award 2009

When they answered the bell on that wild winter night,There was no one expected – and no one in sightThen they saw something standing on top of an urn,Whose peculiar appearance gave them quite a turn.

When a curious creature scuttles into the Bishop family’s house, they have no idea how to get rid of it. Eating plates, trapping them in their drawing room for weeks and throwing their favourite possessions in the pond, it holds them prisoners in their own home.

Fusing the spectral sounds of its original score with unforgettably energetic performances, this was a show to make audiences laugh, shudder and lock their doors extra tight on a wild, wintry night!

Lots more information on the making and touring of this production can be found on the Hoipolloi blog.

The Doubtful Guest was first published in 1957. Over Gorey’s lifetime he generated a huge collection of work and when he died in 2000, he’d become an American cult icon.

For more information on Edward Gorey, why not visit the website of the Edward Gorey House in Cape Cod.

“The wonderful Hoipolloi is our leading purveyor of theatrical whimsy… This brief evening – childlike, but not childish and aimed at all ages – takes the 14 rhyming couplets of one of Gorey’s best-known stories and transforms them into a piece of visual theatre that captures all the Victorian pastiche, fantastical imagination and ominous air of Gorey’s original.”The Guardian (here’s the original review)

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